Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are poised to revolutionize intelligent transportation by enhancing road safety and reducing traffic congestion through real-time communication. However, this dependency introduces vulnerabilities to cyberattacks, especially in emergency scenarios where secure, low-latency communication is critical. While Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) provides quantum-secure key exchange, relying solely on it for all communication processes can introduce latency during key generation, which can be problematic in time-sensitive situations. To address this, we propose HyQCAN, a Hybrid Quantum-Classical Authentication Network that integrates QKD with Dynamic Basis Switching (DBS) for vehicle identity authentication of emergency vehicles in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs). QKD ensures quantum-secure encryption, while DBS enables real-time adaptation of the key exchange process based on communication urgency. HyQCAN achieves an optimal balance between security and responsiveness, with an Average Authentication Time (AAT) of 3.34 ms and an Average Key Generation Efficiency (AKGE) of 111.82 bps, effectively safeguarding critical VANET communications in high-priority situations.
Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are poised to revolutionize intelligent transportation by enhancing road safety and reducing traffic congestion through real-time communication. However, this dependency introduces vulnerabilities to cyberattacks, especially in emergency scenarios where secure, low-latency communication is critical. While Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) provides quantum-secure key exchange, relying solely on it for all communication processes can introduce latency during key generation, which can be problematic in time-sensitive situations. To address this, we propose HyQCAN, a Hybrid Quantum-Classical Authentication Network that integrates QKD with Dynamic Basis Switching (DBS) for vehicle identity authentication of emergency vehicles in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs). QKD ensures quantum-secure encryption, while DBS enables real-time adaptation of the key exchange process based on communication urgency. HyQCAN achieves an optimal balance between security and responsiveness, with an Average Authentication Time (AAT) of 3.34 ms and an Average Key Generation Efficiency (AKGE) of 111.82 bps, effectively safeguarding critical VANET communications in high-priority situations.
Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) connect numerous vehicles, allowing efficient vehicle-to-vehicle communication through a dedicated network. The dynamic connectivity of VANETs facilitates spontaneous communication among diverse vehicles, enabling real-time exchange of crucial information like traffic conditions, road hazards, and other pertinent data. This collaborative network enhances road safety and traffic efficiency by enabling vehicles to share information and adapt to changing conditions in their proximity, ultimately improving the overall transportation system. This paper proposes an authentication protocol designed to be unconditionally secure against quantum attacks. The research delves into integrating quantum authentication with blockchain technology to establish a secure framework for VANETs. We introduce a quantum blockchain framework focused on bolstering the security of VANETs. The paper provides a thorough analysis of the potential of quantum blockchain in addressing common security threats in VANETs, including data tampering, eavesdropping, and unauthorized access.
The rapid integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) has significantly expanded the attack surface of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication systems.These networks exchange large volume of safety-critical data in realtime, which increases their exposure to attacks like message tampering, identity spoofing, and coordinated injection.Traditional cryptographic systems become more suspectable to emerging quantum computing threats, whereas the existing intrusion detection systems suffer from high latency, static encryption, and increased energy consumption due to frequent vehicular movement.These challenges restrict the ability of current systems to guarantee secure, real-time, energy-efficient, and sustainable communication for next-generation AVs.To address these challenges, this study introduced a novel Quantum-Enhanced Lightweight Protocol (QELP) that combines hybrid quantum-classical security mechanisms with adaptive encryption orchestration to improve security, real-time performance, and sustainable operation in IoT-enabled autonomous vehicle sensor networks.QELP combines BB84based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and lattice-based post-quantum cryptography (Kyber+) to establish quantum-resilient session keys.The context-aware encryption method dynamically adjusts the encryption intensity and key refresh rate based on residual energy, traffic density, anomaly score, and vehicular mobility to balance security strength and computational overhead.The model includes multi-layer error and attack detection techniques, including quantum-based intrusion alerts, digital signature validation, and behavioural deviation checks.The VeReMi and CARLA-NS3 datasets are employed for message-based V2X attack validation and to assess the networklevel behavior under real-time traffic scenarios.The performance is evaluated by simulations using Python (Qiskit) for quantum layers and NS3 for AV networks.The simulation results outperform with 98.76% attack detection rate, 0.015 false alarm rate, 13.7ms latency, 12.2% energy depletion score, 94.6% security risk score reduction towards a stronger quantumresilient defense and an encryption throughput improvement to 96.8%, handling encrypted data at high speed.The findings confirm that QELP provides a scalable, quantum-resilient, and energy-aware security architecture for next-generation autonomous vehicular communication systems.
Communication in VANETs (Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network) is crucial when the vehicle is moving.Since these communications take place wirelessly without a direct physical connection, they are vulnerable to attacks such as spoofing, eavesdropping and message tampering.To protect these communications, various classical cryptographic algorithms are in use so that security breach is minimised.However, the algorithms focus on the complexity of the mathematical solution of problems, and such problems can be vulnerable to advanced quantum computing attacks, which makes them less suitable for required long-term quantum-resilient security.To address the challenges related with VANETs, this paper has introduced a new approach which is Quantum Key Distribution (QKD).In the proposed approach, QKD is used to securely establish the encryption key, while the actual messages are transmitted through the conventional classical communication system.In addition, Zero Trust verification is incorporated as an additional security layer, ensuring that communication entities are continuously verified before trusted communication is established.The paper implements and compares two security architectures in the CARLA 0.10.0 simulator: a classical RSA+ECC-based approach and a proposed QKD with Zero-Trust architecture using AES-256.Their communication latency and cryptographic processing time are evaluated to assess the suitability of QKD-based security for low-latency V2X communication.
The rapid proliferation of autonomous electric vehicles (AEVs) has created unprecedented cybersecurity challenges for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication systems that are vulnerable to quantum computing attacks and sophisticated adversarial strategies. This research presents a novel hybrid quantum key distribution (QKD) framework specifically designed for high-mobility vehicular environments, integrating satellite-based and terrestrial quantum communication infrastructure with mobile-optimized protocols. We propose the Mobile Quantum Key Distribution (M-QKD) protocol that achieves information-theoretic security while meeting stringent real-time performance requirements of safety-critical automotive applications. Our hybrid architecture combines predictive key pre-distribution algorithms, adaptive error correction mechanisms, and distributed key verification protocols to ensure continuous secure communication even at highway speeds exceeding120km/h. Comprehensive simulation results demonstrate 99.9% security assurance with sub-50 ms communication latencies and 98.5% quantum key distribution success rates under challenging vehicular mobility conditions. The proposed framework represents the first practical quantum-secured V2V communication system capable of providing unconditional security guarantees while maintaining compatibility with existing V2X standards and infrastructure.
Many cryptographic techniques have been proposed to conceive a secure and privacy-oriented vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) for its practical deployment. The security of these techniques requires a common secret key to be shared between the communicating entities or depend upon the premise that some mathematical problems are computationally hard. However, because of the open nature of the wireless medium, the communication cannot be kept confidential and is prone to eavesdropping. Furthermore, with the arrival of quantum computers, these techniques are prone to quantum attacks—the time complexity of the assumed hard problem gets reduced from millions of years to a few seconds. In this paper, we propose a conditional privacy-preserving authentication scheme based on a quantum key distribution protocol for vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. Our scheme inherits the properties of the quantum key distribution protocol. It does not require a secret authentication key to be transmitted conventionally and is resistant to quantum attacks. Apart from protecting VANETs against generic security threats, including node impersonation, message tampering, and repudiation, our scheme defends VANETs against man-in-the-middle attacks, replay attacks, etc. Besides, our protocol ensures message unlinkability, vehicle-identity privacy, and vehicle traceability if a vehicle misbehaves. The results obtained from the performance evaluation of our scheme confirm reasonable values of information leakage, key length, bit error probability, etc.
The integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) has emerged as a promising solution to overcome the limited coverage of conventional roadside unit (RSU)-based infrastructures. However, UAVs operate in open environments and cannot be fully trusted, while the rapid advancement of quantum computing threatens the long-term security of classical public-key cryptographic systems. As a result, many existing UAV-based VANET authentication schemes face fundamental limitations in future deployments. Most existing schemes either lack post-quantum security or incur excessive computational and communication overhead, making them unsuitable for real-time and high-mobility vehicular environments. In addition, the common assumptions of trusted UAVs do not align with realistic threat models. To address these issues, this paper proposes a lightweight post-quantum authentication and key exchange protocol based on the module learning with errors (MLWE) problem and physically unclonable functions (PUFs). The proposed scheme treats UAVs as untrusted relay nodes and excludes them from session key generation. Its security is evaluated using informal analysis, the real-or-random (RoR) model, BAN logic, and AVISPA, while performance evaluation indicates improved efficiency compared to existing schemes.